**Another Halling Lifer.**

With 2 days left of this year I decided to take a stroll down to the river, even though it was a bit foggy, no where as bad as yesterday. I just got a short distance down The Cam footpath when it started to drizzle, still I kept going, and by the time I got to the church it stopped. Once at the bottom of Ferry Road I stood at my usual place, my the railings. The tide was again near to low tide.
I started to scan the River Medway, and river banks to see what was about. I always start by scanning from right to left, and as I was scanning the water off to the right out from behind the reed lined river bank came swimming a bird I have never seen in Halling before. It started to make it's was across to the Halling side of the river, so once it crossed half way I could put it down on my list. Going by it's jizz straight away I narrowed it down to 2 species,  it was definately a sawbill diver (seeing as it was diving at times) so it was either a Red Breasted Merganser, or a Goosander, the latter I have never seen many of them on river's before, any way after it crossed going slightly away from me, it did a u-turn, and as it did, it faced me. I could see it's off white chest, with a neat cut off from the head and neck colour, along with a greyish back, so   I knew that I was looking at my very first female Goosander on my local patch.
I was hoping that it might come nearer, but there was a lot of shooting going off in the not so far distance, and after a while it was on the wing, and  flew off folowing the river towards Holborough/ Snodland.
The only other species seen  from here was: Grey Heron(2) Teal(m2) Mallard(m4,f3) Cormorant(6, including 1Sinensis with it's bright white breeding patch) G/B/B/Gull(2) Herring Gull(5) Common Gull(3) B/H/Gull(11) C/Crow(4) Moorhen(4) Lapwing(7) Redshank(8).
Halling total for December = 51 species.
Halling total for 2010 = 81 species.